Friday, 21 February 2014

La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty)

plot:Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

what I liked: 142min felt like 90min, I left cinema in a state of inspiration, enchantment and melancholic contentment - loved it! Amongst thousand others things the extremely mixed soundtrack impressed me. Of course I watched it in subtitled Italian - don't slaughter it by watching a dubbed version.

what I didn't like: the audience (more about this in a later post)

verdict: Many people won't be able to enjoy a single minute of it, that's for sure.
It's absurd, long, sometimes brash and pretentious, then philosophical and sorrowful. It hasn't got much plot but offers stunningly beautiful images, has a wicked soundtrack and a superb main actor - I think I have found another film for my personal "Hall of Fame"!
Sensuous and hovering somewhere in the non seizable but blissful room between meaning and hot air.